Live In The Present
by Mini Oreo
Summary: Another Naruto pairing, yet again, a oneshot. ShikaIno. Mainly told following Shikamaru's side, but switches to Ino sometimes. T for slight language. It all started when he woke up much too late...


A/N: Well, I'm back again...with another oneshot. They're easier than real stories, heh. Yes, I'm avoiding my work, -grin-. If I finish this and STILL can't think of anything for my other stuff, then... I dunno what the heck I'm going to do.

Anyway, this story is in 3rd person, but I'll be following someone around, and it'll switch from Shikamaru to Ino and back and forth. It starts out with Shikamaru. Enjoy!

* * *

Following Shikamaru...

Slowly opening his eyes, he squinted at the light streaming in through his window. "Damn sun..." he muttered, rolling out of his bed and onto the floor. "Ow..." he growled, even though he'd meant to hit the floor. Otherwise he'd never wake up in the mornings. "This is so troublesome..." He was just about to change out of his pajamas and into day clothes when his phone rang. He sleepily stumbled over to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" he grumbled into the receiver.

"Shikamaru?" asked a high-pitched voice. It sounded perky.

He winced at the pitch and growled, "Ino? Why are you calling so early in the morning?"

"Early!" she screeched.

'_Again with the high pitch..._' he thought.

"It's already noon!"

"But the sun says it's seven," he complained.

"Well the sun lied. You were supposed to be at the park two hours ago for the group training session!"

"Are you all still there? I might be able to make it if I hurry..."

"Like hell we are! Everyone left after Chouji collapsed after one lap around the track."

"So...why are you tormenting me about this NOW?"

"Just so you know next time. And...well..."

'_I can just see her squirming on the other line. She sounds so nervous...WHAT THE HELL? THIS ISN'T INO!_' he thought, then said, "Well WHAT Ino? If I'm not going anywhere I'm just gonna go back to sleep."

Ino gasped, but tried to keep it silent. "Well...do you want to have our own training session?"

Shikamaru thought for a moment, then said, "Sure, why not? I have nothing else less boring to do today."

"Seriously?" she asked, extremely excitedly.

"Sure. Why are you so excited?"

"Uh...erm...because...Chouji isn't nearly as exciting to spar with as you are!" she said, rushing to come up with something to say.

'_Yeah, suuuure..._' he thought. "All right then. Where do you want to meet?"

"Um..." she said unsurely, "Where do YOU want to meet?"

"Ino..." Shikamaru replied dangerously. '_She always does this. She'll want to do something, but she'll throw the important decisions on me. She did to Chouji once...but it didn't turn out good. This is definitely Ino._'

"Fine, I'll decide." She was silent for a moment, then suggested, "How about the park by the academy. Remember that place?"

Shikamaru instantly replied, "Yes. See ya there in a half an hour?"

"Uh..." Ino said, remembering how long it takes her to get ready to go out, "Sure. I'll be there. I'll show you what it's like to not be tardy!"

"Sure..." Shikamaru said. "Later."

"Bye," Ino said cutely, then hung up.

* * *

Following Ino...

Once the pink phone hit the blue receiver, Ino Yamanaka squealed her head off. "He said yes! He said YES!" You'd think he'd said yes to a date the way she was celebrating. She heard a knock at her bedroom door and took a deep breath before yelling, "Come in!"

A lady that looked very similar to Ino walked in, but her hair was cropped short, and her eyes were brown compared to Ino's blue. "Why in the _world_ are you screaming so much, Ino-chan?" she asked, a note of annoyance in her voice.

"Uh...nothing."

"Ino-chan, I'm only asking this to keep you safe, you know. After all..."

'_Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah...You always lecture me about this whenever I'm going to be around Shikamaru. You make it sound like he's a killer and he's out to get me! Really, mom!_' she though, but pretended to be listening intently to every word her mother said.

"And THAT'S why I always ask you about where you're going," her mother said, finishing up her droning—er—speech. "So, now that you know that, where are you going?"

"I'm going to a training session with Shikamaru-san." '_Might as well call him 'san' rather than 'kun.' Mom would FLIP if she heard me calling any guy 'kun' rather than 'san.' Such a weird person..._'

"Is that all? It's not a secret _date_ or anything like that, is it?" She put unusual emphasis on the word 'date.' It wasn't unusual for Ino's mother, but for most mothers, it was.

"No mom," she sighed, "it's not. You always ask this, and my answer is always the same. NO!"

"Okay. You can go. What time is it now?"

"Noon." '_Talk about keeping track of the time..._'

"You should be back home by...does seven sound good?" Ino's mom already knew how long training sessions could take. Especially between Shikamaru and Ino. They were well-matched, so it took a while for a victor to be decided.

"Yep, seven's fine."

"Okay. Have a good time, Ino-chan." Her mother walked out the door and closed it behind her. Ino silently cheered this time, learning from her previous mistake.

"So now," Ino said, starting to talk aloud to herself, "I need to get ready." She ran her fingers quickly through her long hair and made a disgusted face. "My hair feels all greasy...I'm gonna take a shower." She hopped in the shower quickly, and, thirty minutes later came out of the steamy bathroom, towel-drying her hair. "Now...what to wear? I should probably just...yeah, I'll wear my regular outfit. We're gonna be sparring and stuff, so I shouldn't wear something too fancy..." She threw on her regular outfit, and went back into the bathroom. She combed her hair and blow-dried it, pulling it back into her regular high ponytail. She examined herself in the mirror, and decided it was good enough to go out. She glanced at the clock and gasped. She was supposed to be at the park by 1 PM, but it was already 2 PM. "CRAP!" she yelled, then grabbed her shuriken holder, a few scrolls (just in case she needed them), and ran out the one-story house. "Bye Mom!" she said before slamming the door behind her.

She looked both ways down the street and ran left, the direction of the academy, and the park. When she arrived there, panting, she saw Shikamaru laying on one of the benches. "Shikamaru-kun?" she asked, seeing if he was awake. No reply. "Shikamaru-kun?" she asked again. Still no answer. She shrugged to herself and walked up to Shikamaru. She could hear light breathing and saw a peaceful face on him. He'd fallen asleep waiting for her. "Now I feel bad..." she muttered. She kept staring at his face, not wanting to disturb the calm. It was almost like disturbing the smooth surface on an undisturbed lake... '_Ahah! That's it! Just like creating ripples on a calm surface, the calm surface will return! So...let's disturb it!_' (A/N: Yes, isn't she weird? She thinks in a odder way than I do...) She continued staring at his face, thinking of a way she could wake him up without him getting too angry with her. Her eyes, which were scanning his face, rested on his lips.

'_No, Ino!_' said her angel side, '_You can't do that! He's your temmate! Your mom would KILL you!_'

'_Hey!_' regular Ino retorted, '_Angels aren't supposed to talk about death in such a good way, are they?_'

The angel side was silent, allowing the devil side to wake up. '_Yes, but you KNOW you like him. And he's so defenseless like that. He'd kill to have a hot babe like YOU kiss him. JUST KISS HIM!_'

'_But I couldn't! If mom found out I'd be dead!_' regular Ino popped in.

Ino was struggling with her inner demons—and angels it seems like, as well.

Ino growled, then quickly leaned down to Shikamaru's sleeping face, and kissed him. It was just a quick peck, but he woke up the instant she came within five inches of his face.

* * *

Following Shikamaru...

He woke when Ino was within five inches of his face, but he wanted to see if she'd actually follow through with her plan. He wanted to see if she'd kiss him or not. Not that he didn't want it of course. Her lips landed on his. '_Wow...she actually did it,_' he thought to himself, still pretending to be asleep. '_I think it's about time I 'wake up,'_' he thought, stirring a little, then 'waking up.'

As he opened his eyelids, he was greeted with the glowing face of Ino. It wasn't glowing, but the sun behind her head sure made it seem like it was. "Oy, you're finally here, Ino."

"Yeah. Getting ready took me longer than I thou—hey wait! How did you know I was late!"

Shikamaru pointed to a clock by the sidewalk and said, "Clocks don't lie."

Ino followed his finger and looked at the clock. It was 2:03 PM. "Well, so much for teaching you a lesson about tardiness," Ino said, scratching her head nervously.

"Yeah. So, you wanna start?" offered Shikamaru.

"Sure," said Ino, stretching out her arms a bit, then sitting on the ground and stretching out her legs. Shikamaru didn't follow—he's already stretched twenty minutes ago out of boredom and nothing else better to do. "You ready?" she asked after completing her stretches and setting herself up in a fighting stance.

Shikamaru shifted his weight onto his other leg and mumbled, "Bring it on."

Ino immediately charged at him unexpectedly, and curled her right fist into a ball. She attempted to uppercut Shikamaru, but he hopped to the left and elbowed Ino on the top of her head, sending her crashing to the ground. "Ow..." she muttered before pushing herself back up again. "That was just me warming up, you know," she said in her usual cocky tone.

"Suuuure, Ino-chan," he said, just to annoy her. She pretended to be annoyed, but in truth, she enjoyed him calling her 'Ino-chan.'

The second charge, Ino didn't bother asking if he was ready. She wanted to kick his ass for what he'd done.

* * *

Following Ino

'_At least he didn't notice I kissed him..._' she grumbled to herself in her mind. This time, she jumped high above his head, drawing three throwing stars from her arsenal and hurling them as hard as she could at Shikamaru. '_How DARE he knock me to the ground!_' she thought, '_I'm a GIRL! He thinks because I'm a girl he can kick my ass without me caring, but he's WRONG! I will PUMMEL him until he BEGS for mercy!_'

She charged again, but Shikamaru did the same thing, bopping her on the head, but this time leaned down to her ear and whispered softly, "Try something other than charging. It's too predictable, I-no-chan," he said, emphasizing every syllable of her name, causing her to become even _more_ enraged.

"Rrrrg, get AWAY from me!" she screamed, pushing herself up off the ground. Shikamaru hopped out of the way of the angry woman's flailing and smirked.

"You're so cute when you're angry."

"Shikamaru! I'm gonna kill you!" She almost charged him again, but instead she plopped herself down on the ground and took a few deep breaths, calming herself down.

'_I'll just calm myself down so I can create a sneak attack..._' she thought.

"Too bad I won't give you enough TIME to calm down, Ino-chan!" Shikamaru charged before Ino had a chance to recover herself, and she was knocked back ten feet by contact from Shikamaru's knee to her nose. She thought she heard a snap and a crack and started freaking out.

"Shika-kun! You broke my nose!" she shouted, holding tightly to her nose.

"No I didn't. I purposefully missed the point that would have broken your nose."

"Then what was that snap!"

"The shell of makeup you wear breaking."

"Shikamaru..." she said dangerously.

"Fine, fine. It was the sound of...my knee popping."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Do you want to inspect it?"

"Nah, I wanna fight!"

"You could've been able to tell if you nose was broken by the pain, or lack thereof, you know, right?"

"Shut up!" Ino screeched, throwing some shuriken at Shikamaru. He easily sent throwing stars flying back at her, dodging the ones she threw at him. Shikamaru made a few hand signs and shouted, "Me and my shadow technique!" His shadow snaked towards Ino, and intertwined with her's. "Shi...ka..." she growled before being interrupted by Shikamaru himself. He crossed his arms across his chest, causing Ino to do the same. Ino glared at him and growled, "When I get my hands on you..."

"Yes, when you get your hands on me...then what?" he teased, making cat whiskers with his hands and laughing at Ino's imitation.

"When I get my hands on you," she continued, "you'll be DEAD! You hear me? DEAD!"

"Suuuure, just the same reason I'm standing here still breathing, right?" Ino growled and closed her eyes, calming herself down a bit. "Are you trying that 'if-I-calm-down-I-may-be-able-to-beat-him' technique again?" Ino didn't reply, but continued her peaceful behavior.

* * *

Following Shikamaru...

"Too bad I won't give you enough time to do whatever you're doing!" Shikamaru said before walking backwards. Ino was forced to walk backwards as well. '_Heh, she'll never see this coming. Sure, I did it at the Chunin Exam, but I doubt she remembers it,_' he thought before stopping when he saw the perfect situation. He didn't want to seriously hurt her, but he wanted to win this fight.

"What the hell are you doing, Shika-bozu!" she screamed across the large distance between them.

"Shika-BOZU?" he asked, dumbfounded. "How DARE you call me a squirt!" Shikamaru was seriously pissed now, and he noticed his shadow jutsu was nearly gone. He had to act fast. He turned around, grinning at the fact Ino was pinned to a wall. She turned and was facing the wall. She then noticed what he was doing.

"Shikamaru!" she cried, starting to get scared, "What are you doing!"

Shikamaru laughed and said, "Just a repeated trick."

"Shika-kun..." she said concernedly. He didn't quite sound like himself. "Are you okay?"

"Of course. But I'll give you one last chance to give up."

Ino hung her head in shame and mumbled, "Fine, I give up." After she said those words, the jutsu died. Ino saw this and smacked herself in the head. "If only I'd waited one more minute..."

"You would've been smacking yourself in the head against the wall, smart one."

Ino turned around and glared at Shikamaru. "Oh yeah, well... as loser, I get a prize."

"What! That's not right!" Shikamaru cried, guessing what she might be about ready to do to him. '_She's gonna knock me out, I know it! It'll be 'repayment' for what I just did to her. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead..._' he thought, freaking out.

Ino walked up to Shikamaru with a scowl on her face, glaring, staring him straight in the eye as she walked up to him. She got right up next to his face, fake growling. Shikamaru could tell it was a fake growl, and his faith in his previous assumption faltered. Ino got up a little bit on tip-toe and muttered, "Ready?"

"Eh?" was all Shikamaru could get out before Ino laid one on him. For some odd reason, as a reflex he guessed, Shikamaru wrapped his arms around her, her tiny little frame. '_She's skinny... does she eat?_' he asked himself, but continued holding on to her body, and her lips. He let go of the kiss, but still held on to Ino..._his_ Ino. "You're mine..." he muttered, enjoying the feeling of Ino turning red.

"T-that's s-s-sweet..." she stuttered, obviously too embarrassed to even speak right. Shikamaru smiled again.

'_She's so cute...WAIT! Didn't I used to think she was so ugly? Didn't I used to think I'd never like her—much less love her—even if she was the last girl on earth?_' Shikamaru was trying to hide that he was becoming frantic. He was completely going against what he used to believe. '_Wait, but that was what I USED to believe...not what I believe now._'

"Is something wrong, Shika-kun?" Ino asked, gaining slight control over her voice again.

"Nah, nothing's wrong. My thoughts are just...being a drag, that's all."

Ino smiled. "Good. Wouldn't want my Shika-kun to be worrying over some OTHER woman!"

Shikamaru suppressed a blush. '_'My Shika-kun,' eh? I could get used to that..._' he thought, enjoying having Ino next to him, pushed up against him in a tight embrace.

"Shika-kun?" Ino asked faintly.

"Hn?"

"What are we going to tell our parents?"

It was an innocent question, but Shikamaru couldn't say an answer. He twitched, then grumbled, "Why tell them?"

"Well...it would make it easier to meet up if they knew about us..."

"I don't care. Let's be rebels. We'll meet in secret."

"But what about when we get married?"

Shikamaru couldn't help it this time; he blushed a deep scarlet and almost let go of Ino. "M-m-ma-marriage!" he screeched, trying to stay calm. "How are you thinking that far into the future?"

"I can see what's in the future. You didn't know?"

Shikamaru looked at Ino's expression and saw that she looked dead serious. "Sure, Ino-chan. Sure you can look into the future."

"Yep, I can. But anyway, what are we going to tell then if we want to get married later on?"

'_She's thinking WAAAY too far into the future. That girl's lying through her teeth about 'seeing the future.' This is worrying me. What if she's seriously thinking we'll carry this on through our lives?_' "Then...we'll deal with that later on. Besides, they'll find out eventually on their own, right?"

"Yeah, but we might get in trouble—"

Shikamaru interrupted her by kissing her again, muffling her words. He held on for a few seconds, then broke off. Before she could say anything, he said, "Just stop talking about it, okay? Just live in the present. Think about tomorrow tomorrow, not today."

"Live in the...present?" Ino asked, slightly unsure. She wasn't used to living like that, she was more of a plan-now-live-later type of person. And she said so. "I'm not used to living like that. I'm more of a—"

"Plan now, then live later type of person?" he suggested, finished her sentence for her.

"Yeah."

"It's all right. Don't worry about it." The way he said 'don't worry about it' made Ino feel calm, like she couldn't worry about it, even if she wanted to.

"Thanks..." she muttered, burying her face into Shikamaru's chest, smelling his smell (yes, every person has a smell). "Live in the present, eh? I think I'll give it a shot."

* * *

The End

* * *

A/N: There it is. My first ShikaIno pairing oneshot. I think this is the longest oneshot I've done...for now, heh. Hope you enjoyed! 


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